Emory apologizes for anti-Semitism

ATLANTA -- Emory University in Atlanta is apologizing for a legacy of anti-Semitism at its dental school in the 1950s.

From 1948 to 1961, dozens of Jewish students were flunked out or forced to repeat a year or more of classes.

"We are now hearing powerful, painful stories of how they came to doubt their own abilities, were viewed as failures by parents and friends, and had to rethink careers -- all because the dental school dean at the time was an anti-Semite and other administrators and faculty either ignored or abetted his prejudice," Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement.

Emory invited many of those former students to campus this week for a meeting with President James W. Wagner and a screening of a documentary about the discrimination. Wagner expressed regret that the discrimination happened and that it's taken so long for it to be properly acknowledged.

The apology was sparked by a retired Atlanta dentist who had been discriminated against at Emory. Dr. Stanley "Perry" Brickman tracked down and interviewed peers who shared his experience and presented his findings to Emory administrators.